Athlete Mario García Romo works on resistance in the fog

For the old people who return to their town in the Castilian moor after a long time away, the fog that covers them at Christmas, and they cannot even be seen, is an excuse to feel like children lost in the middle of the mountains and their ears frozen, and to Mario García Romo, who is not old at all (he turned 24 in June) and descended to Villar de Gallimazo (in Salamanca's Moraña) a few days ago from his athletic base in Boulder (Colorado), is that, the feeling of being in house, and also a companion who surrounds him wet and freezing on his runs through the countryside, more than hurtful romantic. “Yes, yes, this fog gives back the feeling of being in the town, but it has been three days without going below one below zero, and that's it, you already miss the sun,” says the athlete, Spanish mile record holder ( 3m 47.69s). “On Christmas Eve I did a 15 mile session [unos 25 kilómetros] and five miles and a gym on Christmas and the 26th. There is no day off.”

García Romo has returned to Spain for Christmas to see his family and to continue running, his profession, and this Sunday, San Silvestre's Day, the last of the year, he will run the San Silvestre de Vallecas, the most important in the world. The man from Salamanca, fourth in the 1,500m at the Oregon 2022 World Cup and sixth in the Budapest World Cup last summer, will be one of the Spanish figures along with Mula Mo Katir from Murcia, silver medalist in the 5,000m in Budapest, and the marathoner Galician from Ames Tariku Novales, who by breaking the national record (2h 5m 48s) in Valencia a month ago (2h 5m) became the first Spaniard to go below 2h 6m in the distance of 42.195 kilometers. In front of them, the favorite , the Ethiopian athlete Berihu Aregawi, Katir's usual rival on the stadium tracks, who in the Cursa dels Nassos (the San Silvestre of Barcelona) two years ago broke the 5K world record, five kilometers on asphalt (12m 49s).

The goal of Paris 2024

When García Romo (and everyone else, the happy public does not distinguish) is bathed in shaving foam at the Rayo stadium, there will be 215 days left until, on August 2, 2024, it will be played at the Stade de France, already then Olympic Stadium, the first series of the 1,500m of the Paris Games. D-day, H-hour. “But not the only decisive date,” says the OAC (On Athletic Club) professional athlete by phone. “No no. There is more than one objective, yes. The Games are the most important thing, logically. After all, they come every four years, right? And it is the largest sporting event in the world. But there is also a free track European Championship, in June, and an indoor World Championship, in March. So those two championships are going to be key too. And I think they are also very important goals for me this year. So I'm going to try to get all three.”

Training, whether in the fog of the Castilian countryside and the oak groves, whether in the deceptive and frozen sun of Colorado, the ski slopes of the millionaires in the Rockies, makes the athletes happy, the endorphins speak in their ears, they tell them that they are superb, it makes them feel fulfilled, and if the training is good, it also generates unstoppable optimism, at least at the height of their ambition. “And it has been going very well for me so far. It has been the busiest fall I have ever done. Never. Besides, I think that training in the summer with a higher volume also helps a lot this fall. Especially to be able to handle longer distances and slightly stronger workouts. And the truth is that I think that compared to last year I have taken a fairly big step in that regard,” says García Romo, who will debut (if he is classified via minimum or ranking) in the Olympic Games, which he will arrive at after touching the medals in two World Cups and a bronze in the last European Championships in Munich 2022. Always ahead, the almost untouchable Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Katir.. “What differentiates me a little from other 1,500m athletes like Katir or Jakob is endurance. They are also very good 5,000 runners, and I, whether you like it or not, have not been able to reflect in the 5,000 the level that I have in the 1,000. This year I hope so. And I will also try to improve even in the 800. It is another goal.”

Like Pep Guardiola with his Manchester City fighters, García Romo was motivated and raised awareness before competitions with the music and action of Gladiator, but not so much anymore. “I think everyone already knows about Gladiator, because it is one of my favorite movies. Yes, I still watch Gladiator, but I don't watch it before all the competitions, but it is a movie that I really like,” he says. “But above all I try to read, I try to read people who inspire me a lot and in whom I find motivation. But I think you also have to find a little motivation within yourself. And I'm also focused on that, on finding my reason to run and my reason to continue improving.”

More than a man of movies or networks, García Romo is a man of books, a reader who seeks answers to life in what he reads, and although, now that the Colorado group coached by Dathan Ritzenhein has a coach, Kelsey Quinn, With a more scientific vision and a needle to control training by millimoles of lactates on the treadmill, perhaps these days you will find more reasons to be an athlete by immersing yourself at the end of your runs in reading the Loneliness of the long-distance runnerhe cross country as class struggle and act of affirmation of rebellion before the world.

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